Periodic saw tooth wave repeater



Oct. 24, 1939. J, c, w Lsow 2,177,162 I PERIODIC- SAW TOOTH WAVE IJPEATEh Filed Jan. 14, 1939 LHIO l2 1B :4 ;l5 I6 25 n 6 --o 0 -1-0 -o M -o -0 v mfiificv OSC'LLATOR F R gU E R I DETECTOR FR E N Y REPQQ mG AMPLIFIER "ODUUWR AMPLIFIER AMP IFI R 03/122 9 o----o ow -o 9 o- 0- F" {I8 ,22' 20 v FIELD E22R FREQUENCY GENERATOR 4a 0- LINE FREQUENCY GENERATOR a I g l l I 5: g IL 0 all I Ouipuf Voltage. Outpu! curra ni.

INVENTOR J N C.W|LSON BY M ATTORNEY I Patented O t. 24, 19 39 I, I. u 2 177 1 2 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PERIODIC SAW TOOTH WAVE REPEATER John C. Wilson, Bayside, N.' Y.-, assignor to Hazeltine Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Application January 14, 1939, Serial No. 250,915 5 claims. (01. 250-36) This invention relates to periodic-wave repeatappears in the output circuit of the tube during ers and, while of general application, the inventhe trace interval which impairs its linearity. tion is of particular utility in producing scan- It is undesirable that the input wave must be ning fields of saw-tooth wave form for television maintained at a given amplitude level during 5 signal-translating apparatus. the retrace interval. 5

In many electrical installations it is desirable The operation of other types of tubes, such as to produce an electric field of saw-tooth wave pentodes, is substantially unafiected by potential form. An example of the use of such a field is changes at the output electrodes and some prior in the scanning system of a television signalart systems have utilized a pentode together translating apparatus such as a transmitter sigwith a voltage input of saw-tooth wave form. 10

' nal-generating tube or a receiver signal-repro- However, in such a system, the inductance which ducing tube. A field of the type under discussion can be tolerated in the output circuit is much is customarily produced by applying periodic less than the desired value due to the fact that v waves of a predetermined wave form to a vacuthe internal impedance of the pentode is high umtube having an output circuit in which is and its damping effect is low and, therefore, its 15 included a field-producing reactance element. scanning efiect is less than can be obtained un- A current or voltage of predetermined wave form der other conditions. For instance, pentode reis' thus required from the tube in order to propeaters with larger inductance coils have been vide a scanning field of the desired wave form. utilized and excited with a saw-tooth voltage Thus, to provide a saw-tooth current through plus a negative pulse during the retrace interval, 20

' an inductor to procure an electromagnetic scanthat is, a saw-tooth plus pulse-input voltage, ning field, it is customary to apply periodic curthe arrangement then operating generally in rent input pulses of substantially rectangular the manner described above for an arrangement wave form to the input circuit of the vacuumutilizing a triode together with a saw-tooth 9,5 tube repeater. Integrating means comprising plus pulse-input voltage, but in such cases, the shunt capacitance is included in the input cirpentode has not been operated below its cut-off cuit to provide a saw-tooth voltage on the grid, point during the trace interval. However, the thus to procure the desired saw-tooth output internal impedance of a pentode is considerably current. greater than that of a triode of comparable di- Many of such systems of the prior art utilize mensions and its conductance is insuificient to 30 triode tubes for the reason that the tube impedprovide the necessary damping in the output anceis such as effectively to damp the output circuit, even in installations of the last-mentioned circuit of the tube during the retrace interval. type, rendering an additional damping resistor In a circuit utilizing a triode, however, the conor a damping diode necessary. It is, therefore,

ll trol of the output current of the tube by potential desirable to provide a system in which the shape changes at the input electrodes of'the tube is of the pulse applied during the retrace interval affected by changes of potential at the output is not critical and in which no additional circuit electrodes, particularly in such systems in which elements are needed. the inductive reactance in the output circuit of It is, therefore, an object of the invention to 40 the tube is comparable in magnitude to the inprovide a vacuum-tube repeater for voltages or 40 ternal reactance .of the triode. For this reason, currents of saw-tooth wave form which is not counter electromotive forces induced in the outsubject to the above-mentioned disadvantages. put circuit affect the operation of the tube in It is a further object of the invention to prosuch manner that it is necessary to apply a negavide a vacuum-tube repeater for currents or '4 tive voltage pulse, in addition to the saw-tooth voltages of saw-tooth wave form having a relavoltage, to the input electrodes of the tube durtively long trace and a relatively short retrace ing the retrace interval. The negative pulse so in which the shape of the pulse during the applied must be so related to the general argreater portion of the retrace interval is not rangement as to provide a current of the decritical.

sired wave form in the output circuit. If the In accordance with the invention, a repeater 50 negative pulse is not of sufiicient magitude, the for translating periodic currents or' voltages of current in the output circuit is not reduced to its saw-tooth wave form having a relatively long proper value at the beginning of each succestrace and a relatively short retrace interval sive trace interval. If the negative pulse is of comprises a vacuum tube having input and out- 65 greater magnitude than needed, a current pulse put electrodes together with a reactive output the input electrodes of the coupled to the output circuit of circuit coupled to the output electrodes.' The vacuum tube utilized is one in which the control of the output current by potential changes at tube is relatively unaffected by potential changes at the output electrodes of the tube. The conventional pentode tube, among others, has this type of characteristic. Means are provided for applying to the input electrodes of the tube periodic current or voltage pulses to produce the desired output from the tube during the trace interval, the pulses being such as to bias the tube to cutoff during at least the initial portion of the retrace interval.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, an inductance is coupled to the output electrodes of the tube through which it vide a saw-tooth scanning current. Also, in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the current through the inductance varies during the trace intervals between predetermined lower and upper limits and the pulses applied to the input circuit of the tube during the retrace intervals are such as to cut oil the tube during the initial portion of each retrace interval and to establish the desired minimum value of current through the inductance at the beginning of each trace interval. V

The present invention constitutes a modification of that disclosed and broadly claimed in an application of Harold A. Wheeler, Serial No. 238,757, filed November 4, 1938, and assigned to the same assignee as the instant application, comprising a periodic wave generator for producing a magnetic field of saw-tooth wave form having relatively long trace and relatively short retrace periods comprising a vacuum-tube repeater having input and output circuits, inductance means in the output circuit for producing the magnetic field, the output circuit having shunt capacitance efiectively included therein, and means coupled to one of the circuits for causing the current to the output circuit to assume during only a part of the retrace period one extreme value such as to cause the rapid change of voltage required across the shunt capacitance. The invention of the above-referred to Wheeler application forms no part of the invention claimed in the present application.

For a better understanding of the invention,

'together with other and further objects thereof,

reference is had to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing and its scope will be pointed out in the appended claims Fig. 1 of the drawing is a circuit diagram, partially schematic, of a complete television receiver of the superheterodyne type embodying a periodic-wave repeater in accordance with the invention; while Figs. 2, 3, and 4a to 50, inclusive, are characteristic curves utilized to explain the performance of the circuit of Fig. 1.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, the system illustrated comprises ,a receiver of the superheterodyne type including an antenna system III, II connected to a radio-frequency amplifier I 2, to which is connected in cascade, in the order named, an oscillator-modulator l3, an intermediate-frequency amplifier M, a detector I5, a video-frequency amplifier I6, and an imagerepro ducing, device IT. A line-frequency generator I8 and a field-frequency generator l9 are the detector-l5, the field-frequency generator l9 and the linefrequency generator l8 being coupled to the fielddeflecting coils 20, 2|

is desired to pro- 25 a particular type of resistance of and 20', 2| of the imagereproducing device [1 through similar repeaters 22 and 22', respectively, presently to be described. The stages or units It) to Hi, inclusive, may all be of conventional well-known construction so that detailed illustration and description thereof are deemed unnecessary herein.

. Referring briefly, however, to the operation of the system described above, television signals intercepted by antenna circuit 10, II 'are selected and amplified in radio-frequency amplifier l2 and coupled to the oscillator-modulator I 3 wherein they are converted into intermediate-frequency signals which, in turn, are selectively amplifled in the intermediate-frequency amplifier l4 and delivered to the detector [5. The modulation components of the signal are derived by the detector l5 and are supplied to the video-frequency amplifier It wherein they are amplified and from which they are supplied in the usual manner to a brilliancy-control electrode of the image-reproducing device I! and to the synchronizing control elements of the generators l8 and IS. The intensity of the scanning ray of the device I1 is thus modulated or controlled in accordance with the video-frequency voltages impressed upon the control electrode in the usual manner. Scanning waves are generated in the line-frequency and field-frequency generators l8 and I9, which are controlled by synchronizing voltage pulses supplied from detector l5, and applied to the scanning elements of theimagereproducing device I! to produce electric scanning fields, thereby to deflect the scanning ray in two directions normal to each other so as to trace a rectilinear scanning pattern on the screen and thereby reconstruct the transmitted image.

Referring now more particularly to the por tion of the system of Fig. 1 embodying the presiations of potential of the output electrode of the tube, for example, a pentode tube connected in a conventional manner. v

The line-frequency generator I9 is effective to develop and supply to the input electrodes of tube pulse in order to provide a system in which the disadvantages ofprior art systems mentioned above are effectively eliminated. In order to explain in more detail the type of pulse which is developed and applied to the input electrodes of tube 25 and the particular advantages which are obtained by utilizing this type of pulse with a tube of the pentode type, reference is made to Fig. 2 which is utilized to explain a corresponding operation in a circuit comprising a triode tube, such as that used in certain of the prior art circuits. In a triode tube, the potential of the anode materially affects the operation of the tube and it is customary in saw-tooth wave repeaters, having an inductive reactance in the output circuit of the tube of a magnitude comparable to the internal electrodes of the triode a saw-tooth voltage plus a negative pulse during the retrace interval.

In Fig. 2, there is shown the operating cycle of such a tube, the negative voltage on the grid of the tube is shown as the triode, to apply to the input 10 the abscissa and the 28 t output current Ia is shown as the ordinate.

If a saw-tooth voltage is applied to the grid during the'trace interval as indicated by the curve a, the tube operates over the tube characteristic Ep2, representing a characteristic of the tube for a given anode voltage. When the grid voltage is instantaneously changed to a highly negative value by the application of the negative pulse during the retrace period, as indicated by curve '1), c, the anode voltageof the tube changes in such manner that the tube operates over a dif ferent characteristic, represented by E The anode current thus decreases during the retrace interval along the curve 0, d 'as the grid'voltage varies as indicated by the curve 0', d. The grid voltage then suddenly decreases to the value a" which is identical in magnitude with the starting grid voltage a. It thus appears that it is difiicult or impossible to drive a tube of the triode type beyond cutoff under such conditions.

In a circuit of the type of that shown in Fig, 1, however, it is entirely practical to operate the tube 25 beyond cutoff during the retrace interval by the application of a negative pulse of moderate amplitude during the retrace interval in addition to the normal saw-tooth voltage input. The reason for this is that, during its operating cycle, a pentode tube effectively operates over a single grid-voltage plate-current characteristic as shown by Fig. 3. The proper grid voltage to be applied to the input electrodes of tube 25 is represented by curv'e m while the resulting output current of the tube is illustrated .by curve 0. As brought out above, it is usually necessary, when a pentode tube is used in a circuit of the type under discussion, to provide additional damping elements for satisfactory operation.

In accordance with the present invention, the pentode tube is cut ofi for only a portion of the retrace interval andis again out on during a remaining portion of theretrace interval in order toincrease the' damping of the output circuit during the final portion of the retrace interval and return the output current to the desired value at the beginning of the trace interval. The inertia effects of the inductance and distributed capacitance, represented by dotted condenser 2| in the output circuit of vacuum tube 25 tend to produce a predetermined oscillatory variation of the, output current of the tube during the retrace interval while the effect of cutting the tube -on during the final portion of the retrace interval the input electrodes of tube 25 during the entire retrace interval to operate the tube. to cutoif. The current through the coils 20, 2| is then as illustrated by Fig. 4b and falls from the instant t1, when the tube is cut off, through zero to a negative value at the time t2, when the tube is again out on. The'voltage across the output electrodes of thetube is illustrated by the curve of Fig. 40 from which it is seen that it reaches a maximum at the instant that the current is zero and continues to fall to a minimum value at the time it, when the tube is again out on. It is thus apparent from the curves of Figs. 4a to 40, in-

elusive, that the pulse of Fig. 4a is applied over too great a portion of the retrace time because the current is not at the desired value at the time b, which is the begiz'ining of the succeeding trace interval.

The effect of shortening the duration of the pulse is shown in Figs. 5a to Sc, inclusive. Fig. 5a represents a negative pulse which is applied to out off the tube 25 w? .-le Fig. 5b represents the current in the output circuit of the tube. will be seen that, while the output current is falling at time t3. the tube 25 is again out on tending to build up the current through the inductance of .the load circuit. As a result, the

current through the inductance continues to fall but falls at a decreasing rate. The duration of the negative-grid pulse of Fig. 5a is so chosen that, at the time is, beginning the succeeding trace interval, the current is at the desired value. The voltage across the output electrodes of tube 25 during the interval 1, i2 is shown by Fig. 50.

It will thus be seen that, beginning at time t the output voltage rises and continues to rise to a maximum value at time is when the tube is again cut on and thereafter the output voltage decreases to its normal value at time 2. It is, therefore, seen from Fig. 5b that the inertia effect of the current due to inductances 20, 2! is compensated by thetendency of tube 25 to pass current time t2 and that these two efiects are proportioned over the interval between the times t; and is so that the required output current is present in the tube at the time i2, which is the beginning of the succeeding trace interval.

It will be understood that the pulses illustrated in Fig. 4a and Fig. 5a are utilized only as markers to indicate time intervals during the retrace period and do not represent the actual grid voltage which is of the saw-tooth plus pulse type.

Since the internal impedance of a pentode, even when conductive, is high, there may be a tendency for the current as shown in Fig. 5b to rise after reaching the minimum value at the time t2 more sharply than the saw-tooth input voltage demands, that is, a transient may be introduced at the beginning of the succeeding trace interval. This would be accompanied by a fall of the anode voltage below its normal level. To combat this, a diode may be connected across the output circuit of tube 25, the cathode of the diode being connected to the anode of the pentode'25. This diode is similar to the so-called eificiency diode sometimes used in saw-tooth wave-form repeater circuits but functions in this case rather as a pure surge absorber.

While there has been described what is at present considered to be the preferred embodiment of this invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the invention, and it is, therefore, aimed in the appended claims to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.-

What is claimed is:

1. A repeater for translating periodic pulses of saw-tooth wave form having a relatively long trace and a relatively short retrace interval comprising. a vacuum tube having input and output electrodes, a reactive output circuit coupled to said output electrodes, said tube having an input-electrode voltage-output-electrode current characteristic substantially independent of output-electrode voltage, and means for applying to produce the desired output from said tube to said input electrodes a periodic-voltage wave during said trace interval, said wave'including pulses efiective to bias said tube to 'cutoii during only the initial portion of said retrace interval.

2. A repeater for translating periodic pulses of saw-tooth wave form having a relatively long trace and a relatively short retrace interval comprising, a vacuum tube having input and output electrodes, an output circuit comprising an inductance"coupled to said output electrodes, said tube having an input-electrode voltage-outputelectrode current characteristic substantially independent of output-electrode voltage, and means for applying to said input electrodes 'a periodicvoltage wave to produce a saw-tooth current through said inductance during said trace interval, said wave including pulses effective to bias saidtube to cutoff during only the initial portion of said retrace interval.

3. A repeater for translating periodic pulses of saw-tooth wave form having a relatively long trace interval, said wave 'ofi during only the initial portion of said trace interval.

4. A repeater for translating periodic pulses of saw-tooth wave form having a relatively long trace and a relatively short retrace interval comprising, a vacuum tube having input and output electrodes, an output circuit comprising an inductance coupled to said output electrodes, said tube having an input-electrode voltage-outputelectrode current characteristic substantially independent of output-electrode voltage, and means for applying to said input electrodes a. periodic-voltage wave to provide a saw-tooth current through said inductance varying between predetermined upper and lower limits during said trace interval, said wave including pulses effective to bias said tube to cutoff during only the initial portion of said retrace interval and to establish current of said lower limiting value through said inductance at the beginning of said trace interval. Y

5. A periodic repeater for translating periodic pulses of saw-tooth wave form having a relatively long trace and a relatively short retrace interval comprising, a pentode vacuum tube having input and output electrodes, a reactive circuit coupled to said output electrodes, and means for applying to said input electrodes a periodicvoltage wave to produce a said tube during said including pulses effective cutoff during only the initial portion of said retrace interval.

JOHN C. WILSON.

desired output from. trace intervals, said wave to bias said tube to 

